Thursday, May 19, 2005

Currently Reading A Short History of the World By J. M. Roberts see related U2 was absolutely amazing. We went last night to the Nets arena for a sold-out show (too bad Nets' games can't look like that). Bono had said before that they don't make as much off touring as people think because of what they spend to put a show together, and it was fairly evident last night. I felt like I was at a friggin light show let alone a concert. But, I think my favorite point of the night came in the middle of their set. They built this ring extending in front of their stage, where people could stand inside while they walked around them. Anyway, the lights dimmed and when they turned on again, Bono was at the top of the key (the ring) and Larry Mullins brought a small drum set out, too, and they started with Love and Peace or Else. Near the end of the song, the lights dimmed again and a spotlight was on Larry who was standing there banging the drums, and he was hitting them hard, almost like a war beat. Then, all of a sudden, on the main stage Larry launched into the opening drum beat for Sunday Bloody Sunday, my favorite U2 song. Before I could realize that it was Bono who was at the front drum set all along, I already had my hands in the air. It was so goshdamn beautiful I almost cried. God bless those men. A few things struck me while I was watching the show, though. One, namely that people are hypocrites. Throughout the arena, there were several humanitarian non-governmental groups and, repeatedly, throughout the show, Bono talked about peace, human rights, AIDS prevention, and they even flashed the first few articles of the UN Declaration of Human Rights on a huge screen. Now, whenever a reference to these things was made, people roared with applause as if they actually cared about these things, but they don't. You might say I'm making a gross generalization, and you're right but you also know that I'm right. Secondly, it's interesting to see how deep into religion the whole band is. I mean, obviously if you listen to the songs you get a sense of it, but in the middle of the set it almost turned into a praisefest. Bono mentioned Abraham at least 5 or 6 times and at one point he wore a headband with the Jesus fish Ictus symbol, pointed to it and said "Jesus healed the sick, it's true" like 10 times over. It really was a whole experience in every kind of way. And the final thing I was fascinated with was the thing about being a musician. Imagining the power of having 10 or 20,000 people listening to you for 3 hours; being able to control the rhythm of an audience and making them move like one big wave; having them sing your thoughts or celebrating your father as if they knew him too. Not to mention all the coke and whores you can get your hands on. And to be able to do all of that until you're 60 or more (Rolling Stones is a good example) is pretty unbelievable. Well enough of that and onto the next big thing, Revenge of the Sith probably this weekend. Anyone seen it?